CANADIAN RAILWAY HISTORY
“PACIFIC” RAIL CAR TOUR Former CN Private car “Pacific” now owned by Mother Parker's Tea and Coffee was on the rear of VIA 64 at Kingston on June 5th. The Photo was taken by Kenny Cairns who is a Service Manager on #14/15 "The Ocean". During the June campaign, this car was used for handicapped fund raising on the rear of several VIA trains in the Montreal – Toronto corridor.
Keith Bowler snapped CNR Mountain 4-8-2 #6015 on display near the VIA station in Jasper, Alberta on May 26th 2012. Built in 1923, and put on display on July 27,1972.
In June, the OT/Museum of Civilization acquired the ceremonial CPR ‘last spike’.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE WEBAGE Exporail News, July, 2012 July 1 to 31: Exporail will be open daily 10:00 AM to 17:00 (5:00 PM).
July 1 to 31: View a water-color exhibition by artist Alice Macredie, she paints in memory of her father, who was a railway bridge engineer in western Canada. This exhibition combines history, art and engineering!
July 14 and 15: Tracking the Grand Trunk, Locomotive 713 and Business Car Canada will be featured along with relics from the Grand Trunk Railway.
Montreal observation streetcar # 3: After a nine year long restoration, including the installation of 8 new wheels, Montreal Golden Chariot # 3 has returned to intermittent service, weather and qualified operators permitting. Special thanks to the late Stephen Walbridge and the Frederick Angus Estate for their generous donations towards this project. Note, this car is NOT in daily operating service!
Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 # 29: CPR 4-4-0 # 29 has just been cosmetically restored by the CPR, it is owned by the CRHA and is on long term lease back to the Canadian Pacific Railway. The locomotive is on display outside CPR's head office in Calgary, Alberta. Another CPR 4-4-0 # 144 is on permanent display at Exporail!
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SOUTHERN PRAIRIE RAILWAY SITE
Canadian Railroad Historical Association E&N Division CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CHRA E&N SITE
Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway Society CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE HUNTSVILLE AND LAKE OF BAYS RAILWAY SOCIETY SITE Two blasts of a 5-chime steam whistle on June 23rd, signalled the emergence of HLBR #2 from the train shed in Huntsville, ON for the first time in almost ten months. Unfortunately this is as far as she got today as she decided to blow the steam dome gasket upon reaching 135 PSI. There’s a new gasket made up waiting to go in Tuesday, our next working day. That’s why starting up early can be a good thing! (Wayne Shaw)
York-Durham Heritage Railway (YDHR) CLICK HERE TO VISIT YORK-DURHAM HERITAGE RAILWAY'S HOME PAGE Michael Delic snapped the YDHR work train about to leave the Uxbridge Yard May 26th powered by York Durham Heritage Railway RS-3 #22. The short train had a hi-rail truck running a ahead, and they would drop ties every mile or so down the line.
West Coast Railway Association (WCRA) CLICK HERE TO VISIT WEST COAST RAILWAY ASSOCIATION'S HOME PAGE PGE 100 Centenary Convention It`s still not too late - Come out and celebrate the 100 years of the railway that started as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in 1912, and went on to become the British Columbia Railway and then BC Rail, before being sold to CN, who operates the line today. Fans and modellers of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and its successors will gather in the CN Roundhouse & Conference Centre at the West Coast railway Heritage Park in Squamish BC on July 13, 14 and 15 for the PGE100 Centenary Convention. This three day event will celebrate the railway’s 100th birthday, and feature all things PGE using the WCRA collection and our Heritage Park facilities. The itinerary for the event includes a welcome wine and cheese reception, clinics on PGE/BCR modeling and operations, operating HO and N scale model layouts, commercial and model displays, model and photography contests, a Saturday evening banquet with keynote speaker, unlimited access to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park. There will also be operating PGE full scale and MiniRail equipment. Convention prices start at just $65, and single day pricing is available. The Conference registrar Brian Clogg can be contacted at 604-588-2194 or by e mail at bclogg@shaw.ca Additional information is available online. Convention flyer HERE Registration Form HERE
THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE Brings in the Crowds Thomas the Tank Engine made his annual visit to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park and as can be seen the photos he keeps drawing the crowds. For four days, the site becomes a Thomas theme park, and the proceeds benefit WCRA railway heritage projects. A full report is not yet available, but we can say - Crowds were impressive and all of us kept very busy. As the result of incredible Volunteer efforts operations were very smooth and people were leaving happy … feedback was very good.
MiniRail SRY 124 Repainted Spiffy! West Coast MiniRail’s GP9 SRY 124 looks fabulous after a major winter overhaul and repaint into SRY’s current Paint Scheme. He is back in service on the line delighting guests of all ages. We thank WCRA Volunteers John Jellis and Roy Crowston for doing great work on the painting and decaling of the unit; and also Singh Biln CMO Southern Railway of British Columbia, and Trish Spencer Seaspan Marine Corporation, for their support and assistance.
Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society Donation On June 21 WCRA’s Russ Grycan (CMO) and Jeremy Davy (MiniRail Coordinator) accepted the donation of a small passenger station from the FVHRS in Surrey BC. The Society is in the process of relocating and the station which had been used as a waiting room for their speeder ride is surplus to needs at the new site. With the help of FVHRS members the station, weighing approx. 300kg, was loaded into a trailer for the trip back to Squamish. WCRA will locate the station as a waiting area at the MiniRail wye at the Heritage Park.
Electric Locomotive BCER#960 Update An anonymous letter (“Friends of B.C.E.R.”) was received by the WCRA recently, complimenting the BCER 960 team on their work and the reports in the newsletter each month. Attached to the letter were colour copies of documents related to the acquisition of the three used locomotives by BCER. The first shows the appropriation of funds in 1946 for the purchase of Oregon Electric 1912 built locomotives 21, 22 & 23 through the Vancouver Equipment Corporation Ltd. Purchase price was $69,777 and the deposit was $7,000. The second from 1948, shows the final cost for the three locos, with spare parts and changing of the voltage from Oregon’s 1200 volts to BCER’s 600 volts, at $84,778. This is great information to have and will be added to the archival files for the BCER 960, (which was Oregon Electric 22).
CN Business Train on ex BCR Sub On June 22 CN ran a business train, Extra 2324 North, from Vancouver through Squamish. The consist was CN ES44DC 2324; Power Car (CN 1710) "Fraser Spirit"; Dome (CN 99) "American Spirit"; Business (CN 100) "Pacific Spirit"; Business (CN 1059) "Tawaw"; and Track Inspection (CN1060) "Sandford Fleming".
Bridge Line Historical Society - Delaware and Hudson RR CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE BRIDGE LINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S HOME PAGE
The Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society CLICK HERE TO VISIT THEIR WEBSITE
Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario (REMO) CLICK HERE TO VISIT THEIR HOMEPAGE The Canadian Pacific Railway will be donating their 100' turntable at Smiths Falls, Ontario, to the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. RMEO is embarking on a fundraising drive, to allow removal of the turntable from its existing pit, and transport the bridge, pit rails, center bearing, and related small hardware across town to the museum grounds. It will be restored and eventually installed in its new pit, as part of our planned display facilities: CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR SITE PLAN This April, we finished our multi- year project to fill the low land on which these facilities will be built: We are looking to raise $25,000 for the move, and all pledges and donations will be very helpful. RMEO is owned and operated by the Smiths Falls Railway Museum Corporation, a federally registered charity, CRA# 124262759RR0001. A receipt for tax purposes will be issued for all donations. Toronto Railway Heritage Association CLICK HERE TO VISIT THEIR HOMEPAGE As many of you may know, Toronto Hydro has essentially reneged on its agreement with the museum at the John Street Roundhouse in downtown Toronto. It planned to build a new hydro vault under the machine shop which was to be dismantled then re-erected as it had been. Now Hydro also wants the whole machine shop too. There is vacant property nearby but Hydro isn’t interested in the property. If Hydro gets its way, the machine shop will not be re-erected at all and not only will the museum lose the only space available for displaying artefacts, creating educational programs & developing its archives, but all of us will lose an important part of the National Heritage building that is the John St roundhouse, including the Machine Shop. So I very strongly encourage all of you to sign this petition and pass it on to those who you think might be interested. Also, please don’t hesitate to write to the mayor and/or councillors. This is not a local issue, it is a national issue.Yours,Richard The link below will take you to our Save The Toronto Railway Museum petition. We are at a crucial juncture in our negotiations with the City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro. Public support is invaluable, and every voice counts. Take a moment and add yours. Get the complete story HERE. Alberta Railway Museum – Edmonton, AB On June 9th Jesse Acorn snapped faded orange liveried GE 44-Ton (ex-CN #FOUR) at the ARM. It was recently donated from Camrose Pipe in Camrose, AB. He also bagged EMD ex-CN NW2 7944, GMD CP GP30 5000, MLW CNR 4-6-0 1392, and EMD CNR F3A 9000.
Alberta Railway Museum – Stettler, AB Michel Daoust snapped Alberta Prairie Museum GP9 7438 on June 12th at their shop in Stettler, AB.
BRITISH COLUMBIA West Coast Railway Association: www.wcra.org
Roundhouse Museum Project:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/roundhousemuseumproject Revelstoke Railway Museum: www.railwaymuseum.com
ALBERTA
Alberta Railway Museum:
www.albertarailwaymuseum.com Rocky Mountain Railway Society: http://www.6060.org/ The Alberta 2005 Centennial Railway Museum Society: www.alberta2005rail.com
MANITOBA Winnipeg Railway Museum: www.wpgrailwaymuseum.com
ONTARIO Waterloo Central Railway http://waterloocentralrailway.com/ York Durham Heritage Railway. http://www.ydhr.ca/ Canadian Museum of Science &Technology (Ottawa) http://imagescn.technomuses.ca Chatham Railway Museum http://www.chathamrailroadmuseum.ca/
Bytown Railway Society:
www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/about.htm Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway Society http://www.portageflyer.org/ Guelph Historical Railway Assoc (GRHA) http://www.ghra.ca Northern Ontario Railway Museum: http://www.northernontariorailroadmuseum.ca/ Friends of 6218: http://www.friendsof6218.ca/contactus.php
QUEBEC Exporail: www.exporail.org/public/ Montreal Railway Modeller’s Association: http://www.canadacentral.org/
NEW BRUNSWICK The New Brunswick Railway Museum Hillsborough, NB http://www.nbrm.ca/en/index.shtml The NBRM in Moncton, NB have on display ex-CNR 4-6-2 #5270, which was the first of this type to be used in the Atlantic Region, and for many years it operated on the Saint John-Moncton line in passenger service. Appropriately, the engine was donated almost 101 years after the opening of the line. On passenger runs it carried a crew of two: Engineer and fireman. During the Second World War, engine 5270 was used in transporting goods and troops across the Atlantic Region.
NOVA SCOTIA Nova Scotia Museum of Industry - Stellarton, NS http://museum.gov.ns.ca/moi/en/home/default.aspx Memory Lane Railway Museum - Middleton, NS http://memorylanerailwaymuseum.com/ Train Station Inn - Tatamagouche, NS http://www.trainstation.ca/ Orangedale Railway Museum - Orangedale, NS http://www.novascotiarailwayheritage.com/orangedale.htm
ILLINOIS Monticello Railway Museum http://www.mrym.org/
PENNSYLVANIA Lake Shore Railway Historical Society http://www.grape-track.org/home Steamtown National Historic Site: http://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm
© CRO July 2012 |
